P2P technology has certainly opened up the entire music industry to any body and everybody …. yet it has also wreaked havoc for new songs, put concert prices through the roof,and will no doubt be disabled at some stage in the future when digital rights management tech catches up with the hackers. So today we check out some legal places to download music, with either paid or free music downloads.
Mininova
Mininova used to be a file-sharing music downloads website, but a recent court decision has meant that only people that hold the copyright to a piece of music can upload it to the site to be shared. You can get heaps of underground, new and obscure artist free music downloads here.
EZ-tracks
EZ-tracks has a limited music download selection, but claims it is legal and free and offers ringtones as well as free music downloads of the real thing.
Last.fm
This is a ‘radio’ subscription site, where you can pay a couple of dollars per month to have an online iPod full of every single artist in the world … but you can only listen to it on Shuffle! There are also quite a few free music downloads available on Last FM, both from bigger bands and independent artists.
Playlist.com
You can build your own online playlist here, and download some of the tracks if you visit the source. Plenty of new hip hop and top 40 music downloads.